Why A BlackBerry Outage Is Good For You

Can A BlackBerry Outage Make You A Better Man?

It’s a common enough scenario: Your buddy just got a new home theater system complete with a gigantic LCD screen, and he invites you over to watch the game and bask in the HD glow of his new setup.

After the requisite couple of minutes spent being impressed by his new system, you settle in for some quality uninterrupted sports watching — but he won’t shut up about the “killer feature set” of his new obsession. “Just check this out for a sec,” he keeps saying, and yet another dialog box pops up at the bottom of the screen. You’re very tempted to tell him to shut up; can’t a guy just watch the game? The image quality is awesome, yes, in the end it’s all about the game, not the gadget — right? We’re beginning to worry that for some guys, that distinction is getting blurred.

What really matters? Hint: not iPhone apps

Enjoying an experience — whether it’s the thrill of watching the one-handed catch that leads to a touchdown win or finding the nearest beer store without the help of your iPhone — is lately getting overwhelmed by our obsession with the gadgets that are meant to help us. And over time, we’re concerned that our increased reliance on these gadgets will erode our resourcefulness, or at the very least our ability to enjoy the simplest pleasures of manhood — like a long stretch of undisturbed football on TV, or the confidence you have in your innate sense of direction.

We’re going to get right to the point here: You need to be able to function without your smartphone, GPS and home theater. If you can’t, you’re not much different than a baby who cries when his pacifier is taken away. We’re encouraged to think that as men, being proficient with tech is crucial – and it is. But, when the chips are down, who cares how many e-mails you can bang out on your BlackBerry while waiting for your latte to be ready? The skills that really matter are those that come into play when the network is down.

The legendary plastic saxophone concert

In May of 1953, the legendary jazz saxophone player Charlie “Bird” Parker, along with four other celebrated musicians, were scheduled to play a concert at Massey Hall (Toronto, Canada). Parker was a heroin addict, and, in a characteristic move, he pawned his saxophone in the days leading up to the show in order to get money for drugs. He showed up in Toronto without a horn, and given that it was evening, all of the music stores were closed. He and his band combed the city for something for Parker to play, and they finally found a plastic Grafton sax — hardly the instrument for the job.

Nonetheless, Bird played the plastic sax like his life depended on it, and the resulting live recording (released under the name The Quintet: Jazz at Massey Hall) is often cited as one of the best live jazz recordings ever made.

Now, we’re not trying to glorify heroin addiction, but the fact remains that few musicians today operate with such resourcefulness as that shown by the Quintet that night.

take control of your resources

There’s something impotent about obsessive control, whether it takes the form of getting just the right image quality on your flat-screen or shaving that last 30 seconds off your commute with the help of your GPS. Next time you’re in a new city, we encourage you to go GPS-free; next time your smartphone dies, try taking a couple of days off to see how you handle the challenge. It might take a day or so to get used to life without a BlackBerry, but you’ll feel like a human, and the inconvenience might just bring about some unexpected brilliance.